


Making the Most of Things

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: 31_days, M/M, RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-07
Updated: 2012-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 05:03:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris visits Karl with the intention to ask him something very important.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making the Most of Things

**Author's Note:**

> written for [31_days](http://31-days.livejournal.com) April 7th prompt - you read on because even the alphabet is precious. The two verses quoted in Chris’ letter to Karl comes from the poem “Come Live With Me and Be My Love” by Christopher Marlowe.

Chris walked into the coffee shop, instantly feeling the warmth of his surroundings settle out upon already exposed and over-heated skin. The air was redolent with coffee, indulgent scents of espresso and chocolate, mingled with the slightly bitter scents of tea. Scones and other delicacies were displayed in a cabinet against the far wall, bright surfaces lit by gentle light to entice the hungriest of customers. The day outside was humid, threatening thunderstorms by nightfall, judging by the amount of static-ozone electricity crackling through the air and the weight of the humidity outside. He nodded towards one of the waitresses, Zoe, and he smiled when she greeted him and pointed towards Karl serving another customer. Chris himself was an all too familiar face in the bakery by now that everyone who worked there knew exactly who he was coming to visit.

Karl looked up when Chris approached, an immediate grin brightening his slightly heat-flushed face as he nodded towards Chris. Chris grinned back and gestured towards the nearest table, indicating that he wanted Karl to join him when the other man was able to. Karl nodded his ready acceptance before he returned his attentions back to his customer. 

Chris didn’t have long to wait, yet still he had enough time to take in his all too familiar surroundings. He’d started visiting the coffee shop soon after he’d started teaching English Literature at the local college. It had been recommended to him by one of his students and he hadn’t regretted taking up that recommendation. The ambience was friendly, warm, enticing to families and singles alike. Chris was neither single nor a family man, yet he hoped to be one day, if Karl would permit it. Nerves skittered through him at the thought of what he was about to do, yet still he kept up a friendly smile when Karl finally came over.

“Hey, Chris,” Karl said, New Zealand accent soft and almost lost to the chattering crowds around him. “How are you today, mate?” 

“Fine. How was your day?” Chris asked, automatically reaching for Karl’s hand and smiling when the other man smilingly allowed him to hold it.

He rubbed the pad of his thumb over Karl’s knuckles, lips pushed out into a thoughtful pout as he did so. 

“No different to any other,” Karl sighed, in response to Chris’ earlier question. “Rushed off my feet and too many bloody customers. Anyone would think this was a coffee shop or something. I’ll be glad to get home; I’m bushed.” 

Chris nodded, laughing at Karl’s words, blue eyes lifting slightly to examine Karl’s face as though committing the other man’s features to memory. Karl frowned beneath Chris’ scrutiny, before asking the inevitable.

“What’s wrong? You look like you have something on your mind,” he asked, leaning forward slightly to include Chris in an imagined sphere of privacy.

Chris smiled, a small frown working its way between his brows and creasing the skin between them. Karl waited patiently, knowing that Chris could never be rushed when he had something on his mind.

“Are you free tonight?” Chris asked, by way of starting his explanation.

“Nah, I gotta baby-sit the neighbour‘s brat of a kid, tonight,” Karl said. “Why?” 

“I just wanted to ask you something,” Chris said. “And no, I don’t want to do it here, before you ask. I need to ask you it in private.” 

“Sounds ominous,” Karl commented, with a frown at the other man.

Chris looked up when he felt the tension in the other man’s hand, the cloud of suspicion evident in Karl’s kind hazel eyes. Karl blinked at him, mouth set into a dissatisfied line and Chris groaned internally. By the look upon Karl’s face it was obvious that he expected Chris to break up with him, yet that had been the furthest thing from Chris’ thoughts. After a year-long relationship, Chris had something else in mind. 

“It’s not what you’re thinking, babe,” Chris said, gently. “I’m not breaking up with you.”

Karl’s shoulders lost some of the tension that had been previously stiffening them and the frown only slightly cleared from Karl’s face.

“That's good. I was scared you were going to do just that,” Karl admitted, gaze suddenly averted to the tabletop. 

“No,” Chris confirmed. “That’s the last thing I want to do.” 

Karl looked up and away when a customer called for attention and sighed lustily. 

“Listen, I gotta go back to work. Sorry, Chris,” he said, leaning forward to press a kiss to Chris’ mouth. “We’ll talk about this later, okay? I’ll call you.” 

“I don’t want to do it on the phone,” Chris said, suddenly. “When are you free from the devil spawn?” 

Karl laughed at that. 

“I don’t know. Late probably, about ten-ish,” Karl replied. “Come over then?” 

“That’s fine,” Chris replied, with a nod, glad that it was a Friday night and not a school night. “I’ll be there.” 

Karl nodded and pecked a goodbye kiss to Chris’ waiting mouth before returning to his customer. Chris was gone by the time that Karl looked over at the table he’d been sitting at and Karl felt a stab of sadness and guilt that he hadn’t been able to spend more time with his boyfriend. Zoe stopped beside Karl, waitress uniform sticking to her slender frame in the heat and handed him a small envelope.

“Chris left you this,” she said, with one raised eyebrow.

“What is it?” Karl asked, suspiciously.

“My best guess would be that it is an envelope,” Zoe replied. “You usually use them to hold letters. Now, the trick of the thing is you open it and read what‘s inside. Not that I‘m an expert at these sorts of things or anything.” 

“Yeah, very funny,” Karl said, with a swipe at Zoe’s arm. “Get the hell outta my sight, you unashamed harlot.” 

Zoe’s only response was a throaty laugh, as she danced easily away. Karl opened the envelope, fingers sliding easily under the only partially stuck flap, before he eased a single piece of paper out from the confines of the envelope. He studied the paper, eyes scanning over the familiar swoop and curve of Chris’ distinctive handwriting, at the lines of text that he was surprised Chris had bothered to handwrite instead of type out. It made sense for Chris to do that; he’d always said he wrote more personal things by hand, when he wanted them to mean and matter more. Then Karl concentrated upon the words themselves, soon realizing that it was a couple of verses of a poem he remembered Chris reading aloud to him once, by Christopher Marlowe. 

Come live with me and be my love,   
And we will all the pleasures prove   
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,   
Woods or steepy mountain yields. 

And we will sit upon the rocks,   
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,   
By shallow rivers to whose falls   
Melodious birds sing madrigals. 

Karl blinked slightly, a slight smile already growing upon his lips as he read the brief note beneath the verses. 

“Karl, Marlowe says it better than I ever could; I guess I never could shake the romantic poetry from my system. What I’m trying to say is, that I want something more permanent, that I want you to move in with me. Please say yes, all my love and more, Chris.” 

“What’s it say?” Zoe’s voice suddenly asked from nearby, making Karl blink back into reality.

He looked up, unwilling to leave Chris’ message behind and the beauty of the words displayed upon the page. He smiled, blowing out a shaky breath then.

“He just asked me to move in with him,” he said, a grin stretching his mouth at that and spreading towards Zoe.

“That’s fantastic. Don’t even think about saying no,” Zoe remonstrated. “You guys are so good together.” 

“Yeah, we are,” Karl replied, thoughtfully, turning his gaze towards Chris’ letter again.

“So?” Zoe asked, when the silence stretched out for too long between them. 

“It’s a big step,” Karl admitted, quietly. “Not to mention unexpected.” 

“Chris is crazy about you; anyone can see that. It just proves it for him to even ask you something like that,” Zoe said, laying one hand upon his shoulder. 

“I know. It’s just - I’ve never done this before. What if it fucks things up?” Karl asked. “I couldn’t live with that guilt if it did.” 

“Things won’t get fucked up,” Zoe assured him. “Chris has never done something like this before either. You know that. It’s about time you both settled down and made a go of something more permanent. You do love him, right?”

“That’s a stupid question, Zoe,” Karl said, with a snort.

“Well, do you?” Zoe persisted.

“Of course I do,” Karl said, shaking his head in disgust at his friend. “That’s never been in doubt.”

Zoe merely raised one eyebrow at Karl pointedly and cocked her hip towards him, a clear - well? - evident in her expression. 

“I’d be crazy not to, right?" Karl asked her.

“Yes,” Zoe said, without hesitation. 

“It’s good I’m not a crazy bloke, then,” Karl said, with a smile. 

Zoe squealed in excitement and jigged a little on the spot. Then she stopped.

“That was a yes, right?” she asked, sudden uncertainty in her gaze 

“That was a yes,” Karl confirmed, amusement clear in his expression.

Zoe squealed again, before she said - “So when are you going to tell him?”

“Tonight. He’s coming over to mine,” Karl replied, as he cast a glance down at Chris’ message again.

“Not that you’re gonna need this, but good luck,” she said, as she rubbed his arm in excitement.

“Thanks,” Karl said, simply, before returning his gaze to the words sprawled black against white paper.

Zoe soon left his side, to head out the door and home. Karl left himself soon after Zoe did, after carefully locking the coffee shop and setting the alarm for the night. He trailed down the road as the thunderclouds delivered on their earlier promise of rainfall by evening. The first fat splatters of rain sloshed against the sidewalk and upon Karl’s uncovered head, nervousness roiling in his stomach in expectation of the time that Chris would arrive at his apartment. 

~~~ 

Karl flopped down upon his couch as soon as he returned to his apartment, body weary after a mere three hours of baby-sitting. Sometimes he wondered why he agreed to look after the little tyke, yet knew that his neighbour, Marie, had often performed more than a few favours for him in the past. He owed her a lot, he knew. His head lolled on the back of the couch, tiredness claiming him and was pulled out of a potential doze by the doorbell ringing. Karl checked the time, although there was no doubt as to who his visitor could be.

He stood, wearily, before crossing his living area and opening the front door onto the face of a very nervous looking Chris. There was a pleading look in the other man’s eyes, turning them larger than they already were and his mouth was pinched into an uncertain little pout. Karl grinned, one hand flying out to snarl in Chris’ shirt, pulling him in close so that he could press a kiss against the other man’s mouth. He felt Chris’ resulting smile and the weight of the other man’s hand against his back. When Karl pulled away, Chris was still smiling. 

“I’ll take that as a yes, then,” Chris stated, although there was hidden hope in his voice.

“That’s a yes,” Karl confirmed, with a decisive nod and an ushering gesture to usher Chris inside. “I would love to move in with you.” 

Chris entered, hand brushing against Karl’s chest as he did so, a secretive smile curling the corners of his mouth as he stared purposefully at the other man. 

“I‘m glad, you know,” Chris said, softly, once he was settled upon the couch. “I thought you’d say no.” 

“No chance,” Karl said, with a snort as he draped one arm across Chris’ shoulders. 

Chris settled against the other man, feeling the familiar heat against his body as he did so. He leant in, head angled slightly as he claimed Karl’s mouth in a kiss, mouths moving slickly together as Karl reciprocated. He felt the other man malleable against him, body responding easily to his as he slowly began undoing Karl’s shirt buttons. He slid one hand inside Karl’s shirt, stroking downwards, fingers teasing one nipple gently. Karl drew away, eyes blown, before he gestured lazily towards the bedroom.

“We should go to the bedroom,” he said, breath stolen by Chris’ kisses.

“Nah, just fine here,” Chris protested, as he leant in for another kiss.

Karl didn’t protest nor did he speak again. The only time he spoke was to cry out Chris’ name when he came, Chris a familiar and heavy weight on top of him, the other man moving in confident strokes inside him. Chris’ climax burst over them, Karl’s name a whispered wish in the darkness as they slowly cycled down from their highs upon the couch. They remained laying there, sweat-slick skin sticking against the cushions, hands and mouths roving against each other’s bodies, until Chris finally stood. Karl looked up at him, body stretched out upon the sofa as a confused frown worked across his brow. 

“Bedroom,” Chris said, finally conceding to Karl’s earlier wish. “You won’t get many more chances to sleep with me in there, now. Better make the most of it while you can.” 

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about,” Karl said, grinning as he stood. 

Chris merely grinned, before leading the other man into Karl’s bedroom, to make good on making the most of the time they had left in there.


End file.
